I can’t believe Rihanna’s dumb neck tattoo is a two day story. But it is, so here goes. A few days ago, Rihanna went in and got a neck tattoo that read (in cursive) “Rebelle Fleur”. Yesterday, PopEater and other sites ran stories about how in French, this is completely wrong. Apparently, it should be “Fleur Rebelle”. While in English we say rebellious flower (putting the adjective before the noun), in French and other languages, you put the adjective after the noun. Flower Rebellious. Eh. Anyway, OK! Magazine has a piece today claiming that Rihanna intended the tattoo to read exactly as it does — Rebel Flower. Two nouns, she claims.

After photos appeared of Rihanna’s new tattoo — which reads “Rebelle Fleur” — Internet pedants claimed that it was “gibberish” because she got the French phrasing wrong.

Au contraire, says Rihanna.

While Gawker.com argued that, since the adjective usually comes before the noun in French, the phrase that was inked on RiRi’s neck last week should say “Fleur Rebelle.”

But in a text message that she sent to her tattoo artist Keith “Bang Bang” McCurdy — which has been leaked exclusively to OK! — the “Rude Boy” singer says that the tat is right on the money.

She even predicted that the press would try to call her out on it!

She wrote: “rebelle fleur translates to rebel flower, NOT rebelious flower, its 2 nouns so in that case fleur does not HAVE to be first! Fyi, cuz they will ask”.

So it turns out Rihanna knows more about French than those hoity toity writers at Gawker do! We’d say “touché,” but we don’t really know French.

YEs, but in French, from what I remember, you can’t USE a noun as an adjective like you can in English.

That is to say that two nouns next to each other would be just that–two objects. As though she had tattoed “rebel, flower”

This is the case in most languages and I THINK French operates like this. Someone more fluent than me out there for some insight? When I do use French, I’d never use a noun as an adjective, but I rarely use mine anymore for more than hotel booking and taxis…

Wench: I just dont understand why she is a superstar either. She can’t sing, she can’t dance, she isnt the writer or producer of her songs, so I really don’t get why she is shuch a big thing. Umbrella might have been the turning point since it played and played and played forever, but I think that is her having Jay Z as godfather of her career, that pushed her to mainstream public. He decided he was going to help her and everyone around him did just that. Its the only reason I can think of. His influence in the biz put her where she is now. Not sure she deserved though.. So many talented people out there struggling to make it…

As someone that’s seen her in concert I completely disagree, I’m not that big a fan but when I saw her she had a fantastic voice and yes she has done acting. Im sick of you idiots hating, clearly you haunt made it anywhere near as much as she has so if she’s shit what does that make you?

As someone that’s seen her in concert I completely disagree, I’m not that big a fan but when I saw her she had a fantastic voice and yes she has done acting. Im sick of you idiots hating, clearly you havnt made it anywhere near as much as she has so if she’s shit what does that make you?

As someone with tattoos, I don’t consider them an invitation for the general public to comment on my body, but they do anyway. If you like my tattoos and you want to tell me, that’s fine, whatever. But if you don’t, I don’t really give a shit. But she’s a celebrity, so I’m sure Rihanna’s used to everyone having something to say about everything, and I read somewhere (dlisted?) that she told the artist beforehand that people were going to think it was wrong. It’s her body, and she’s the one who has to live with it, and she seems OK with it.

Additionally, I majored in French in college, so I should probably be more bothered by the crappy grammar, but people mangle French all the time, so it’s not really surprising.

im fluent in french because i live in montreal. its weird to just put two nouns next to eachother like that. i think shes trying to cover up a mistake. fleure rebelle makes a lot more sense. and actually sounds kinda pretty…

people please check with someone who is fluent before choosing a tattoo!!!

While Gawker.com argued that, since the adjective usually comes before the noun in French, the phrase that was inked on RiRi’s neck last week should say “Fleur Rebelle.”
- I think Gawker made a mistake: the adjective comes after the noun in French( fleur= noun, rebelle=adjective), not before, as it does in many languages of Latin provenience. Maybe the people there should not pretend to be more intelligent than the celebrities they make fun of, after all they also made a mistake.

@zelda : You’re absolutely right. French is my first language and her tattoo, and explanation, makes no sense in French. It would’ve been better if it had been “rebelle & fleur”, or something like this. The way it is now, it’s just two words put next to each other, with no link between them.

zelda is perfectly right. I am french and there’s not ONE possibility for these two words to make sense as she put them. I never understood how celebs could get a permanent tattoo wrong,but I guess she’s surrounded by idiots as well.how hard is it to get an accurate translation ? it’s just sad

I studied French for 8 years, and albeit I didn’t love it, I’m pretty sure her tattoo is completely wrong.
In every romance languages (I don’t know about Romanian, though) the noun comes before the adjectives, except in some cases (as for the words bello/buono in Italian, Beau/Bon in French, correct me if I’m wrong).

who gives a hell if it’s precisely correct according to a professor of french literature – it’s a tattoo, not a damn essay exam. it’s not like when one of these idiot celebs gets a chinese symbol that they think means “peace, love and understanding” when it really means “i eat dog shit for breakfast”. whatever she was going for, it’s close enough and it sounds pretty. also, plenty of tattoos (and other stuff) take poetic license with various languages, so it’s quite possible she did know it wasn’t perfect french, but liked it that way.

By the way, her name is Rhianna Fenty. Doesn’t take a genius to figure out the significance; same initials, same amount of letters/syllables in both words. Clearly it is a bit of a ‘nickname’ for her, so two nouns is perfectly fine. Get ovah it!

Ummmm, not to point out the obnious (yet again), but isn’t the bigger issue here that there is no such freaking thing as a “REBELIOUS FLOWER”?! I get that RiRi wants to be all “edgy” or whatever, but this is just getting ridiculous…

I’m fluent in French and her tattoo is wrong. She should have just had it inked in English. Having two nouns strung together does not work in French. It should be fleur rebelle like other posters have mentioned. And it’s a really tacky tattoo anyways.

we are two french girls, you’ll see with all mistakes we’ll made to try write this letter in english but no, her tatoo is wrong, except if she wants two words: rebelle and fleur but if it’s a sentence it’s wrong it’s like for u blue eyes for us it’s yeux bleu and not bleu yeux… i hope it’s two words because it’s too bad for her to have a mistake on her neck …

Imagine the same but in a reversed situation. Someone French getting a tattoo in English, of a sentence that doesn’t make any sense.
Even if it had a good intention, it’s still really stupid to have something written all wrong TATTOOED on your body for the rest of your life…

Just…. Check with 10 different sources that you have it right before getting it inked on your freakin’ neck hahaha!

I think what’s really annoyed people – and it would annoy me if I were French – is that Rihanna seems to be taking the position that she knows better than native French speakers. The tattoo clearly doesn’t translate to “Rebel Flower”. I don’t speak French but most French commenters have pointed out that their language doesn’t operate the same way that English does and I’m certainly not going to argue.

Don’t get me wrong, a tattoo is a personal thing and as long as this means something to Rihanna, I can’t see a problem. But I do find it rather offensive that she’s trying to say that the tattoo is correct.

I’m not saying that Rihanna should be made to care about whether it’s correct but if she’s going to claim that, she should check with a professional translation agency first.

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